On this day (7 Apr), exactly one year ago, Singapore began its Circuit Breaker. After more than a year after the COVID-19 pandemic started, Singapore today is seeing an overall plateau in the number of its daily cases.
As of 12:00pm today (7 Apr), the Ministry of Health (MOH) has preliminarily confirmed 35 new cases of COVID-19 infection.
One is a community case.
This brings the total number of cases in Singapore to 60,554.
Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained stable at 2 cases per week in the past 2 weeks. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also remained stable at 2 cases per week in the past 2 weeks.
S’pore in Discussion With Pharmaceutical Companies to Manufacture Vaccines Locally
According to TODAYonline, the Singapore Government is currently in works to produce vaccines and therapeutics, right here in Singapore with a “fill-and-finish” facility.
Estimated to cost a cool US$130 million (~S$174 million), the facility will reportedly manufacture up to 30 million sterile doses a month.
“Singapore has a globally competitive pharmaceutical manufacturing sector,” said Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing.
“Pharmaceutical companies including Amgen, Pfizer, GSK, and Sanofi, have invested here to leverage our skilled talent, commitment to research and development, strong manufacturing capabilities and excellent global connectivity,” he added.
The creation of the facility was initially announced in October 2020 by Thermo Fisher Scientific, “one of the world’s largest life sciences companies”. The company expressed that the facility will be able to “meet demand in the region and respond effectively to future health emergencies”.
Operations are expected to commence in 2022, with an expected manufacturing rate of up to 30 million doses a month.
“This new facility will consist of two new filling lines, including a high-speed sterile line approved for live virus filling, the first such large scale capability in Singapore,” Mr Chan said.
Apparently, it will also possess cleanroom capacity, labs and offices.
“It will have the versatility to manufacture a wide variety of vaccines and therapeutics, and enhance Singapore’s resilience to future pandemics beyond COVID-19,” he added.
More than 300 people are expected to be employed.
Other than just manufacturing doses for the general public, it will also attract like-minded manufacturers to Singapore. This would then complement the government’s ongoing efforts to produce executives skilled in the manufacturing of vaccine and therapeutics, strengthening their presence in the biomedical field.
At the same time, the move would also “reinforce our strategy of nurturing local companies in the biomedical sciences industry, whose research and development and innovation activities can strengthen our response to future pandemics”.
251 Active Cases
There are currently 46 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and 1 is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
205 are isolated and cared for at community facilities. These are those who have mild symptoms, or are clinically well but still test positive for COVID-19.
30 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection.
Feature Image: kandl stock / Shutterstock.com (Image for illustration purpose only)
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